First Fifteen Days
by jan.rover
Summary: Her eyebrows raised, now partly aware of his state. "Ask me what?" "a-askyouifyouaremygirlfriend" another RukaRu! haha. please review people... enjoy! :D


First Fifteen Days

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A/N: Another RukaRu!! rolf! :) This one takes place on a European Cruise Ship. ha! why? well basically because I have no idea how to start my story when I wrote this, so , that's it. ha! Gotcha there.! lol. Anyway.. It's in Normal POV, so please bear with the slight confusion in the conflict as the story goes along. You'll understand later....IF YOU READ...and REVIEW afterwards.. rolf! haha! kidding. but, yeah. Thanks in advance people!Phew! :)

LEGEND:

****** = actual setting of the story in Normal POV also...

P.S.

When was the last time I uploaded my fic?? haha. alright. This one's just been staying inside my bag for quite a long while now, so I decided to start encoding it already whenever I get the chance. So... hMn. alrighty then! here it is! No more delays! in..

three...

two...

one...

zero...

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-2

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nah.. seriously. this is it. ;D

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Normal POV

It was rather too cold for a date — if they could consider this as one. He tucked his hands inside his pockets and instinctively balled his fists. Firstly, because, his jacket's pockets were not enough to ease the cold. Secondly, because he felt like they have nowhere to be except her hands — which, apparently, were also tucked in her jacket for some reasons, he guessed, similar to his.

"It's cold." She suddenly said. But then it didn't sound complaining, nor did it sound like a suggestion, at all.

"Y-yeah. D'you want to go inside, then?" Now his voice sounded pleading. But she shook her head; so, that had him shut up again just as what they've been doing for the past fifteen minutes.

It has been five years after graduating from Alice Academy. Our Ice Queen became the promising Electronics Engineer; and, well, one of the most famous and rich ones, of course, for being the inventor herself. Her favorite guy, shall we put it that way, became a Vet — as planned and as expected — and started working in NatGeo. His slight appearances in some shows apparently had gained him multiplied numbers of fans, summing all up from the Academy up to the present.

But then career didn't matter much this time. It was th first month of their European Cruise — somewhat like their reunion after highschool. Everyone was present — Mikan, Natsume, Yuu, Anna..almost everyone in the Academy, actually. So, basically, the fangirls were included.

"Hey." He almost jumped at her sudden attack. "Did Mikan find our already?"

He glanced at her and thought. Of course she would find out sooner or later. So much sooner than he had expected, actually. She had been very perceptive about the two recently, that it had him gulping all the time Mikan shots him the look of curiosity. lol. "Probably.", he muttered, "She's you're bestfriend."

"She doesn't usually notice things." Her voice was still calm, just as how it had always been.

"The more I think of that, the more I get nervous. She's too perceptive." He paused and cringed. "Ugh. They all are."

She glanced at him and they shrugged.

* * *

_Flipping back the pages just fifteen days ago, a night was all that was needed for everyone to start to notice..._

Sometime in the past, a blond bishie and a raven-haired, so-called Ice Queen, were mere cats and dogs fighting over blackmail pictures. Everyone knows the story well enough. The fan girls back then even thought that the Ice Queen actually had a crush on their god-like beauty, Ruka Nogi. But, hey. Who could possibly think of that nonsense right? Hah. Right.

What they didn't know was that geniuses might probably became the geniuses we know because of some idiotic ideas we call nonsense. So maybe that's what happened to the lovebirds we've been talking about.

And so they grew — technically grew up with each other — and graduated High School. They went to college, got busy, had crushes on their of their own but practically didn't go on pursuing a love affair for some reasons they couldn't possibly fathom. Only until that fateful night came.

The fateful night. The fifteenth day of the European Cruise. The stars were barely seen in the black, cloudy, night; which was rather too cold for two people to have a little 'chat' up on the deck of the Cruiser.

It started out like a casual conversation. Sort of can be classified as normal. However, _casual _really wasn't normal if the two couple were Ruka Nogi and Hotaru Imai. They hardly even talked before! lol.

Sparing you guys the traditional confession ritual, the night ended in a way that surprised them both. They loved each other; and both had said it.

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****

He sighed and that did it. "Do you have something in your mind, Nogi? Better spit it out or I'll knock your brain off to keep you from sighing. You're getting on my nerves."

He glanced at her for the nth time and got trapped in her purple orbs. "Uhm..Y-you know.."

"Just say it already."

"N-no! I-er — " He shook his head instinctively and froze. "I-it's just the usual, recent dilemma..."

Yeah. The usual, recent, dilemma.... Their bugging friends, salivating for his lovelife. lol.

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Since that fateful night, whatever the result was to them, things started to become different. And interesting. And intriguing.... Ha! Well, you know,the things like simple hi's and sheepish smiles that never really occured between the two unlikely couple, suddenly popped from nowhere. The oh-I-didn't-know-you-were-there kind of treatment they both had gotten used to was replaced by the can-I-sit-here?-sure-why-not acts, which were too casual for everyone to notice at the instant.

Maybe because our new lovebirds weren't really the typical lovestruck couple we know. They don't hold hands; they're not always with each other; they don't talk like they have forever; at least when they're not alone they're mostly like that. All they've got were hi's and hello's; a few, quiet, blank-sweet glances; and a few hours at night when everyone's asleep. Apparently, these things were yet more than enough to arouse their bestfriend's curiosity. Thus, as a result, everyone's curiosity too.

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******

"I-I have a question, Hotaru." He muttered and tried to compose himself.

His name rang on her ears. "What?"

"W-well. I-it's sort of hypothetical, alright?" Silence. He glanced at her and back down again. "Err..Well. You perfectly know t-that.. everyone's been pestering me about —"

"You and me."

Blood rushed to his face had him lose his self-coordination. His eyes tried to find ways to look away but to no avail. "Ugh. I hate it when you do that." He had no idea how he looked like, but he perfectly knew how he flushed on the way she stared at him.

"What?" She frowned at his sudden distraction, completely oblivious of his acuse.

"Nothing." He lied and shrugged, concentrating more on trying to control his composure. He couldn't possibly just say that she dazzles him, could he? Well. Apparently, that was only on the lower-scale category to concern him; for a much more stressful matter had been waiting impatiently inside him. Which, if ignored and delayed any minute longer, would knock off his chest.

"Get on with your point already." She cut in his thoughts.

He inhaled and released it with a sudden gush. "Okay." He looked at her as he muttered mostly to himself. She met his gaze and for a second got taken aback by the tightening of his eyes as if with concentration. She thought she was about to gulp, but stopped herself when he started talking. Or rather, stuttering. "I-I just t-thought that..er-I-I just thought that it wouldn't be so bad to ask you — "

Her eyebrows raised, now partly aware of his state. "Ask me what?"

"a-askyouifyouaremygirlfriend" He said it too fast that he had to immediately gasp for air. He sighed and composed himself to look at her and wait for his doom.

She stared at him for a moment, waiting for his question to sink down on her. And when she answered, her voice sounded nonechalant. "Yes."

There was silence again, and she had to count to five until he finally sighed. He was speechless for a while, then he smiled at her — the smile she never considered easy to resist.

She raised an eyebrow at him. His grin widenned. "Of course." He was calm now, but inside him, a tiny Ruka Nogi jumped up and down in joy. Only until she cut in. "Why ask?"

He gulped. "Err....I-I told you already... I-It's sort o-of hypothe—"

"You liar."

Their eyes bore on each other, gauging each other's state of reasoning. He was staring at her politely maybe due to his unkept nervousness. She sighed. "You weren't so sure, either, were you?"

The wind blew and the jumping Ruka inside him bounced so hard that it came pounding in his chest, deafning him for seconds, synchronous to his heart that was already racing. He smiled and opened his palm in front of them, feeling so relieved that anything. She stared at it unmoving while he waited patiently. Finally, giving up to her own reasoning, she took it tenderly without a word.

"Sorry." He said and warmed her hand with his. "I-I wasn't really so sure..."

"I knew it." She sounded annoyed, he thought surely, but was convinced that she wasn't mad at all.

He couldn't help but chuckle at his amusement. "Weird." She rolled her eyes, knowing that he would again muse about his and her feelings. "Weird but cute. Ha. Up till now I really can't believe it."

"Why? Would you have wanted me to answer 'no' instead?"

He froze at the assault and gave her the signature panic-stricken-'what-are-you-kidding?!!' look. "Of course not! I-I mean — Of course, I wanted a 'yes'..."

She nodded once as she smiled and stifled a chuckle , satisfied, though he hadn't interpreted it as that. "Alright. If you say so."

"W-will you stop..kidding like that?!" he muttered under his breath and sighed to relax. "You could give me a heart attack you know."

They both paused to savor the last remaining minutes of their night; and their tender little touch which was all too bizarre a feeling to them up till now. It was peaceful — both their surroundings and his mind — only until it suddenly occurred to him.

"Hang on." he muttered and looked at her. "Y-you did say 'either', didn't you?"

She looked at him and paused there. "Yup."

"B-but..I-I thought — "

"You're not the only one who's confused."

"S-so that means — "

"I wasn't so sure either."

Silence. He managed to breathe at the sudden realization and she raised an eyebrow at him. His eyebrows furrowed and shook his head, trying to grasp the information. "Here I was, panicking that you might get mad if I'd ask you! And there you are, so calm. You sounded so sure!"

"I was just assuming it. Even assuming that you truly loved me. " She replied almost too absently. "I was only relieved when you said you wanted a 'yes'.."

His mouth was gaping. "You're unbelievable."

Her lips twitched to a familiar curve. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You could assume about our — ", he paused and struggled to say the word without flushing , "— relationship.. but you can't assume something that is already given."

"Given that?"

"That I love you!"

Her tongue retreated as it sank down. She looked away, smiling, as he sulked at himself. He sighed again and mentally slapped himself, half mad for being the only one so stressed about the matter. "And I was the only one who got pestered by _them_! You could have just spared me that..."

She smirked and stared at something far. "It's not my fault you're not good in handling situations like that."

"Ugh." He leaned down at her and back up. "Yeah. Sure. Right."

She couldn't help but smile at that.

"Finally." He suddenly grinned and sighed in content after a few moments of silence. She narrowed her eyes, again feeling his erupting cheesiness. "Finally, I'm enlightened. I wish I was able to tell you I love you earlier. It would have been fun."

"Huh. Fun."

He leaned down at her teasingly and she frowned. "Yup. It would have been very fun to watch your photo-business-slash-blackmailing fall down. You couldn't possibly afford to blackmail your _one true love,_ could you, Hotaru Imai? "

Her eyebrows raised and gave him a disbelieving look which amused him more. "Maybe, you're right. But, no. It would have been a lot more fun blackmailing my _one true love _knowing he wouldn't be able to fight back. Would you, Ruka Nogi, fight back?"

His eyes widened, a smirk playing on her angelic face as the moon peeked from the clouds, lightening the surroundings. He shrugged, accepting defeat. "Fine. Fine. It's just that — I could have been spared from Mikan's curious looks or Natsume's excited smirks as if he really knew what's happening. "

"This isn't really a secret, so don't worry about it. " She said and traced his knuckles with her fingers that were entwined with his. "It's just a matter of who finds out."

"Of course." He was distracted for a while. "But Ugh! You can say that because you weren't the one who got pestered by them. You don't know how it feels to be bugged by them, wishing that I could just jump off the ship to escape. "

"You could've just jumped off." She smirked.

"No. That would spoil everything. Besides, I don't favor sharks that much. They're mean."

She rolled her eyes.

"Ugh. Ugh. Ugh." He muttered under his breath and tried hard not to sound like a whining teenage girl. "I hate how they tried to dig out information about my lovelife.."

"_Lovelife_. Ugh."

That was enough to distract him. He laughed and grinned at her. "Remind me not to use that word ever again. I don't want to disgust my_ one true love. _"

He said the word teasingly that it sent weird shock through her body. She looked at him and absorbed everything — including all his nonsense. He returned the look and he smiled the smile he knew she well loved. "I know this needs a lot of practice to say out right. But I love you."

She smiled and tiptoed to reach his lips, linger for a couple of seconds, and gently pulled away. Their first kiss. "I agree. Practice is what we need. So, I'll start now..." She smirked and he grinned sheepishly. " I love you."

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**_Epilouge_**

Far, far away from our lovebirds, a group of curious, pestering, friends peered from behind the wall that completely concealed them.

"See?!!!!" Mikan shook her boyfriend too joyously, ignoring Sumire's shaking on her.

"I can't believe it.." Anna whispered to herself.

"Neither can I.." Nonoko muttered,gaping.

Koko smirked triumphantly as he patted Natsume at the back. "I win. Hotaru kissed him first."

The Black Cat's eyes narrowed as he stood up and towed Mikan away. But he was feeling smug when they were already inside, walking his girlfriend to her room. In a few seconds he couldn't conceal his smirk no more as a familiar scream of terror echoed from the deck. Ahh... Burning Blonde hair of a mind reader. Voila. "Nothing can get so amusing than that."

"You're mean, Natsume." the brunette pouted before opening her cabin door.

He shrugged, still obviously pleased with himself. "Serves him right. That's the least I can gain for losing his bet."

She shook her head and grinned as she pecked him on his cheek. "Still. You owe him a sportscar, meanie..."

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-owari-

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A/N: Whooh!! It's done! Really, guys, sorry for the delays before the story started. lol. So...what do you think??? what??? Please review!!! phullueezzz...! :D

Spare me the flames, pls..but feel free to comment. ja!


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